debbie lum
producer, director, writer, editor, camera
Debbie Lum is a San Francisco-based filmmaker and editor. SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE is her feature-length directing debut. For years she worked as a documentary editor; her editing credits include A.K.A DON BONUS (winner, National Emmy), KELLY LOVES TONY (nominee, IDA Best Documentary) which she also co-produced and TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA (winner, Audience Award, VC LA Film Festival). In the editing room, she has worked with notable directors, Spencer Nakasako, Wayne Wang and Philip Kaufman. She has also written and directed several short comedies, CHINESE BEAUTY, A GREAT DEAL! and ONE APRIL MORNING, which have screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival among many other festivals.
steven bolstad
subject
Born in Minnesota, Steven has lived in California from an early age. A baby-boomer and self-professed “internet junkie,” he was once an art student turned jewelry salesman and currently works as a garage attendant in San Francisco. In his early 60s, Steven is twice divorced, has two children from his first marriage and is also a grandfather of twins. He picks up more Mandarin everyday but continues to uses ‘Google Translate’ regularly to communicate with his third wife Sandy.
jianhua ‘sandy’ bolstad
subject
Sandy, whose Chinese name is Jianhua, grew up on a tea farm in the remote mountains of Huangshan, a UNESCO World Heritage site, located in Anhui Province, China. At the age of 18, she left her village and migrated to Shenzhen, China's fourth largest city. There she worked her way up from the factory floor to an office job and become an executive secretary at a fashion company. Still single at age 30, she went online looking for love and met Steven. She speaks Anhui dialect, Mandarin, Cantonese and now is becoming fluent in English.
stephanie wang-breal
consulting producer
Stephanie Wang-Breal is the Director/Producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary, WO AI NI MOMMY (I Love You, Mommy). The film was awarded three Grand Jury Best Documentary Awards at the AFI/ Discovery Silverdocs Film Festival, the NY Asian American International Film Festival and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, as well as a 2011 CINE Special Jury Award. The film was broadcast nationally on the PBS series P.O.V. Besides independent documentaries, Stephanie also directs commercials, art videos for nonprofit organizations and stories for various media outlets including CNN, UNICEF, MTV, Discovery, Radical Media and the Biography Channel. Stephanie currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
steven okazaki
consulting producer
Steven Okazaki has received numerous honors, including an Academy Award®, four Academy Award® nominations, a Primetime Emmy, a Peabody and an AFI Fellowship. His films, produced for HBO, PBS and NHK, include DAYS OF WAITING, BLACK TAR HEROIN and WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN.
gordy haab
composer
Gordy Haab is an award-winning composer whose diverse music can be heard in more than 70 professional productions. Gordy's music ranges from his world-renowned orchestral scores for STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC and INDIANA JONES AND THE STAFF OF KINGS to his suspenseful scores for Anchor Bay's BEHIND THE MASK and MTV's THE TRUTH BELOW to his comedic blend of self-made instruments and offbeat sounds heard in such productions as DAVE BARRY’S GUIDE TO GUYS, ABC's GREEK and TLC's PITTLE PEOPLE BIG WORLD. Gordy most recently composed an original score for LucasArts' and Microsoft's STAR WARS: DUEL for which he had the privilege of recording the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir at Abbey Road Studios.
tina nguyen
editor, writer, co-producer
Tina Nguyen is a documentary and commercial editor. She recently co-edited HOLY WARS which was nominated for Best Feature at IDFA and was an official selection of AFI/Discovery Silverdocs and the IDA's Docuweeks. Her other documentary credits include editing and associate producing the feature films BILALIAN and THAT ALL MAY BE ONE. BILALIAN received awards at the Pan African Film Festival and the Dahlonega International Film Festival. She is based in Los Angeles, where she also works on commercial projects for TV and the Web.
amy ferraris
editor, writer
Amy Ferraris is a writer, editor and director who works in documentary film and nonfiction television. She edited and co-wrote THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, which premiered at SXSW in 2005 and aired on the Sundance Channel. She also wrote, directed and edited THE PERFECT CAPPUCCINO (2008), a first-person documentary about her lifelong obsession with coffee and chain stores. Her broadcast editing credits include work for A&E, Animal Planet, Lifetime, the Discovery Channel and WEtv.
s. leo chiang
story consultant
S. Leo Chiang is a Taiwan-born, San Francisco-based filmmaker. His most recent documentary, the Emmy® Award-nominated A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES about the rebuilding and transformation of the Vietnamese American community in post-Katrina New Orleans, picked up eight film festival awards, aired on PBS Independent Lens series, and has been acquired by more than 200 academic and public libraries. His previous films include TO YOU SWEETHEART, ONE + ONE (CINE Golden Eagle Award 2002) and SAFE JOURNEY. Leo also collaborates with other documentarians as an editor (TRUE-HEARTED VIXEN, POV 2001; RECALLING ORANGE COUNTRY (PBS/VOCES 2006) and as a cameraman (ASK NOT, Independent Lens 2009). His newest film, MR. CAO GOES TO WASHINGTON is slated to premiere in March 2012. Leo received his MFA in film production from University of Southern California and also is a lecturer in the Social Documentation program at University of California, Santa Cruz.
spencer nakasako
story consultant
Spencer Nakasako, the award-winning, veteran, indie filmmaker, is perhaps best known for his trilogy, a.k.a. DON BONUS (winner of a national Emmy), KELLY LOVES TONY and REFUGEE. He is the founder of the ground breaking Media Lab at the Vietnamese Youth Development Center in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. Spencer is currently a lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and the Social Documentation Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
